


Crash Course

by RayneSummer



Series: The Android First Aid Chonicals [1]
Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Gen, They talk a lot, also i may have created first aid OCs, as it always is, but im not an android expert so, but it's rlly abt trash cop family, never underestimate my need to explain first aid
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-13
Updated: 2018-07-13
Packaged: 2019-06-10 00:38:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,965
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15279741
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RayneSummer/pseuds/RayneSummer
Summary: After however long the legal stuff took (a length of time Hank didn’t know and also didn’t care to know), androids are finally considered ‘people’ and are protected by law and all that jazz. Which of course means a couple of modified working conditions, including a basic android first aid course to be undertaken in every workplace – including the DPD. And of course, some people have stronger opinions than others…





	Crash Course

**Author's Note:**

> Literally. Never underestimate my need to explain first aid. Especially when it can be specialised. I had an entire series of 'Winchester First Aid' back in the day (the days of good Supernatural ha) and I'm not going to stop this sort of thing any time soon. Sincerely, your not-local fictional-obsessed nurse.

The lady beamed around at the circle of various people - police officers, higher-ups, androids, and of course Captain Jeffery Fowler, who had (only slightly reluctantly, since he was a busy man) agreed to organise the lesson.

It was after normal work time and dark. Several of the room's occupants seemed rather grumpy at not being able to leave immediately after finishing, but a quick threat from Fowler had convinced them to attend. A quick threat that nonetheless threatened their jobs, since this course was practically mandatory now. Basically, anyway.

"Good evening," announced the lady, way too brightly for the time of day and situation (in Hank's opinion, anyway). "My name is Clara and this is my helper Sarah," she gestured to an android beside her who remained seated but gave a small wave to the room at large. "We're here to give you all a quick crash course on basic android first aid."

Gavin Reed, someone who had needed more threatening than the average annoyed officer, snorted derisively.

"This is fucking stupid," he muttered.

Unfortunately, he was seated in the circle of chairs right opposite their teachers, and Clara frowned pointedly at him exactly the way someone would non-verbally scold a teenager who had made a fart noise in the middle of class.

"Please, if you have any questions, raise your hand."

Reed rolled his eyes but shut his mouth, deliberately looking away from the speaker as if bored. He caught the narrowed eyes of Hank who, for apparent safety purposes, had been seated several chairs away with Connor closer to the leaders. He quickly looked even further away, expression sour. This was going to be a long night.

Clara continued explaining. “This course should last about an hour, then you can all go home, so I suggest that we all listen and keep interruptions to a minimum, which will keep things moving swiftly along.” She motioned to a small set-up of a screen behind her. “This is not an intensive course – though you can certainly attend one of those if you would you like afterwards – so we will just be briefly outlining android anatomy, then discussing a few basic first aid responses for reacting to a damaged or injured android.”

At a nod and a smile from Clara, her android partner stood up and turned to the screen, switching it on to display a basic android anatomy model with a few simple labels.

“If you have ever owned an android in the past, you may have been provided with a leaflet of sorts that detailed this kind of basic physiology,” she said, gesturing to the screen as a couple of officers leaned forward to see it better. Reed leaned back, crossing his arms and tipping his chair onto its two back legs.

Hank, on the other hand, was squinting at the screen in apparent interest. Having never owned or been particularly interested in any sort of android before Connor, he only knew stuff that the aforementioned partner had managed to tell him in basic English during the times the kid had been shot or worse. If he could understand the technical speak Connor used half the time, he admittedly might know more, so this was a good chance to learn some things in a way Hank could clearly understand.

“Android anatomy is surprisingly similar to that of a human, in most ways,” Sarah began with a smile, “consisting of limbs, wiring for nerves and tubing for blood, biocomponents that are somewhat the equivalent of organs, and units such as the optical or auditory parts.”

As she spoke, the bits she was explaining lit up on the display, which was arguably impressive. Or, well, it was to Hank, anyway, who had never been particularly interested in fancy technology (including androids, naturally). Also he was an old millennial who barely knew how to work an advanced phone, a fact he had been quick to point out to Jeffery when first assigned an android ‘partner’.

Said partner who was apparently smiling at him instead of paying attention to the presentation thing.

Hank raised an eyebrow. “What?” He kept his voice low as the android teacher explained the function of tubing and wiring – which even Hank could guess were the equivalent of blood vessels and nerves.

Connor just shrugged and glanced back at the lecture before murmuring, “you just seem to be interested and somewhat enjoying yourself. It’s nice to see, Lieutenant.”

Taken slightly aback, Hank paused before muttering in reply, “Yeah, well, shut up and let me listen then.”

Although he wouldn’t exactly call it enjoying himself – more like finding out how better to keep Connor alive when the kid ran off to do stupid self-sacrificing shit was certainly going to prove beneficial sooner or later.

But he had already specifically asked to listen so Hank kept his reasoning to himself and focused on what the girl, Sarah, was talking about now.

“You may have heard of the Thirium Pump Regulator,” she said, and an object just below the chest lit up on the anatomy display, with a caption ‘CRITICAL BIOCOMPONENT’. “However, this is not the heart – it simply keeps the actual heart going at a steady pace, and regulates the flow of Thirium throughout the body, which is, as we now know, the equivalent of blood, and is in fact also known as blue blood.”

Hank nodded to himself. The latter part he certainly knew. And he seen enough of.

The biocomponent bit, though… he felt like he had heard of it before. Connor had definitely mentioned a Thirium pump regulator at some point. Hadn’t he?

The lieutenant nudged his friend, who looked at him curiously.

“Hey, Connor. Isn’t that the thing that you said something happened at Stratford Tower that time?” He asked quietly.

The android’s face fell just a tiny bit, and Hank frowned, concerned. It wasn’t exactly like Connor back then had talked about what had happened in detail, or how it actually made him feel. In fact, he hadn’t said much about it at all. And now wasn’t really the place, but Hank just wanted to know if he had the bio-thingy right.

Connor nodded in response, a little hesitant. “Yes… the kitchen deviant pulled it out.”

Hank raised an eyebrow. “Just like that?”

“Well. I had pulled his out to try and get it—him to talk, and, well, as soon as I put it back, he did the same to me.”

“Oh.” Okay then. That kind of sucked. “But you don’t… die immediately if that happens? You didn’t, at least, before.”

He hesitated, lowering his voice even further. “There is approximately 60 to 90 seconds after losing a critical biocomponent like that before complete shutdown.”

Almost immediately, before Hank could reply to Connor, they overheard the teacher girl’s continuing explanations, “if any one of these main biocomponents is damaged or removed, you must help or get help as soon as absolutely possible, as the android will have at the very most two minutes until they will die.”

Sarah’s wording was deliberately different from Connor’s, which was interesting but not particularly surprising. Connor was one of the few deviants that still automatically fell back on speaking technically and, in more human terms, almost distantly.

And it wasn’t like Hank didn’t understand the need to distance oneself from things.

Debating briefly with himself for a second, he reached out a hand and patted Connor’s shoulder – the kid was looking uncomfortable at the reminder of (one of) a brush with death in his past and was fiddling with his fingers in a way that meant he would have liked something to absently play with in his hands. His coin, that meant.

Connor glanced back at the contact and gave Hank a grateful smile as the latter reached into his pocket and fished around for second, producing Connor’s coin and giving it to him.

“Thank you, lieutenant,” he murmured, immediately flicking the metal from hand to hand before settling on rolling it across his knuckles without noise.

Hank resisted rolling his eyes. “It’s Hank. And whatever, just be quiet, I’m tryna listen,” he muttered, but with a fondness that Connor easily picked up on. The android nevertheless simply nodded to show he’d understood.

“Androids can suffer from several human complications,” Sarah was saying, “including extreme cold or heat, both of which will eventually effect their biocomponents and shut them down; blood loss, in a very similar way to humans; and neurological issues following head injuries, such as loss of memory banks, problems adjusting their gyroscope which will affect their balance, and malfunctioning optical or auditory units.”

Gavin Reed chose that moment to tip his chair further back than it could handle, and down he went with it, hitting his head lightly on the tiled floor.

Several of the officers resisted laughing as he got up and righted his chair, fuming.

“Are you alright, Detective Reed?” Connor asked politely as Hank also tried not to laugh at Reed’s increasingly embarrassed and furious expression.

“Fuck off,” he snapped, sitting back down, which was nonetheless an expected answer.

Connor shrugged and faced the front again as Chris, next to Reed, patted the former’s shoulder while still trying to keep a straight face himself. Sarah blinked at the situation, bemused, and glanced at Clara, who smiled reassuringly and gestured for her to continue.

“Uh… Treatment of these conditions closely reflects human first aid. Slow heating or cooling after a temperature incident is beneficial and allows the android to begin working properly again. This is particularly crucial if water was involved, especially icy water. That degree of temperature will certainly damage biocomponents that will take a while to self-repair, if at all possible.”

Hank nudged Connor again. “So you can get sick.”

“Not sick, Lieutenant, just overheating or—”

He nudged once again to get the kid to shut up. “Yeah, yeah. Just don’t go jumping in any ice-cold lakes while running after idiots.”

Connor smiled. “I will certainly try.”

 “Blood loss results in similar symptoms as in humans; disorientation, dizziness, paler or clammy skin. If it is not controlled, the android will automatically begin rerouting Thirium to vital biocomponents and will possibly go into standby, or unconsciousness, in order to continue working for longer.”

She tapped the display behind her, which had apparently changed while Hank hadn’t been looking, and now showed the internal tubing or whatever in an android’s body.

Sarah continued, “The main goal is to stop the person bleeding out, resupply lost Thirium, and seal up the wound if necessary. This can be achieved in an emergency with a hot poker or a similar device. The heat seals the synthetic skin, prevented outward blood loss.”

Ouch. A lot of people would have winced at that fact, but in a room of qualified police officers and the like, only a few showed any outward reaction. At least Hank knew androids couldn’t feel pain exactly. They felt something though. He knew that much.

“Getting help is important in all situations,” Sarah said as Clara stood up, producing a bunch of what looked like business cards. “These are useful to keep on you if you wish. They contain the closest android maintenance centres and the numbers for them, including an emergency number.”

Clara handed out the cards to each person in the circle, most just glancing at it with mild interest before focusing back on the talk. Reed took his, snorted, and crumpled it in his hand, shoving the folded card into his pocket with a thoroughly disgruntled look. Hank almost missed his because he was busy glaring at Reed’s reaction, but when he did accept the card, he looked over it with what seemed like relief, almost.

“It would be easier to go to than Jericho,” Connor murmured beside him in an unsure way. Hank glanced at his partner.

“For you, no, because robo-Jesus would freak out if he found out you were hiding something from him, and since I know how that feels, it’s my responsibility to keep him in the know.”

Connor blinked at him, expression somewhere between gratefulness and confusion.

“Robo-Jesus?”

“Shut up.” Hank sighed and slipped the card into his pocket. “It is nice to have someone to call immediately though. Takes a bit off my mind.”

Clara sat back down and the murmur of chatter faded out before Sarah started talking again. “These centres used to be just for repair and maintenance, but now they are more like clinics or hospitals. You may make an appointment, walk in, or call an emergency.”

“A friendly reminder that androids are now considered people with the same rights as humans,” Clara spoke up abruptly. She was frowning in Reed’s direction, to Hank’s pleasure. “Therefore their health, though not completely the same to yours, is still important and must be treated as such.” She regarded the room for a moment before nodding to Sarah again.

“Right.” Sarah nodded too. “We are different but similar, and still require medical attention should malfunctions or injuries happen.” She paused. “And justification if damage has been purposefully inflicted.”

Connor felt someone’s glare and turned to, of course, see Gavin Reed’s scorching gaze on him. It made him quite uncomfortable, as did the reminder of all the times Reed had indeed purposefully raised a hand or fist to him. Most of those had occurred before the laws, since it was now illegal, but that fact had never stopped Reed from punching anyone he felt deserved it, law or not.

Reed now commenced to purposefully raise his hand and show Connor his middle finger. The android wasn’t at all bothered by that, since it was practically child’s play. No point rising to it.

But before he could look away, Hank caught his stare and followed it to where Reed was still flipping the finger towards them. The lieutenant’s expression darkened.

Connor immediately grabbed Hank’s shoulder. “Not worth it,” he said quickly.

“REED!” A bark from the other side of the room rung out before Hank could react. The detective glanced sulkily over at his Captain. “If you don’t stop behaving like a disobedient child, you can take your bitching out of here and receive a disciplinary warning.”

The man in question grimaced, glanced at the two teachers who were waiting not quite patiently, then sighed and slumped further in his seat in defeat.

Fowler nodded sternly before turning back to the leaders. “Go ahead,” he invited.

“Right, uh,” Clara put the business cards away and straightened up. “We’re only the last bit now anyway. How to recognise and react to a dead or deactivated android, someone unconscious or in standby, and an injury android.”

The display behind her switched to reflect what she was talking about, and showed a picture of the side of an android’s head where the LED shone blue.

“As you know, many androids have removed their LEDs that were previously present at the right side of their heads,” Clara said, and gestured to Sarah as she added, “but some have not, which does not mean they are less; it is a personal decision.”

Hank glanced at Connor. “I guess you’re not that unusual then,” he muttered.

Connor seemed a little hesitant, self-consciously touching his free hand to the right side of his head. “At Jericho I am,” he replied, almost too quietly for Hank to hear.

The lieutenant frowned at him as he turned his attention back to the talk, but let it go for now. They could talk about that later. More like, they were going to talk about it later, because Connor had the tendency to do exactly not that, much like Hank. They were both trying to talk more and make better decisions about talking. ‘Trying’ being the operative word.

Clara briefly ran through the colours, most of which Hank already knew; blue was normal, yellow was thinking or other preoccupied, and red was danger, basically.

Which for Connor in particular meant disobeying or not completing his ‘mission’. And was usually followed by high anxiety.

“Without an LED, it can be difficult to tell what status an unresponsive android is in.” Clara smiled at Sarah and gestured for her to do something. Sarah nodded and got down to lay on the floor in the middle of the circle, unmoving.

She closed then opened her eyes, explaining, “while an android’s optical unit does require lubrication, it is not as important as with a human’s eye, thus meaning that an android with their eyes open could still just be in standby mode.”

Hank repressed a shudder. He’d seen it in Connor before, but it was still creepy. Unseeing, staring, blank eyes. Dead eyes.

“Androids also do not need to breathe. They do, in order to not only fit in with humans, but to keep their systems at an optimal temperature, neutralise any toxic gases, and stay calm. But it is not vital, and so an unconscious android may also not be breathing.”

To illustrate Clara’s point, Sarah had stopped synthetic breathing on the floor. She was now lying with her eyes open without blinking, and not breathing. Several officers displayed uncomfortableness at this, to Connor’s interest. He glanced sideways at Hank, who was staring at the still android with a neutral expression, but his lips and eyes were tight.

Connor nudged him this time, and offered a reassuring smile when the lieutenant turned.

“Therefore the easiest way to tell if an unresponsive android is still functioning, or alive, is like this,” Clara knelt down next to Sarah and carefully placed her palm flat at the centre of the android’s chest, leaving it there for a moment in silence before looking up and smiling at the circle. “Doing this allows you to feel vibrations of the working Thirium pump regulator as well as the heartbeat, if you focus enough,” she explained.

Several officers murmured amongst themselves, surprised by this. It was even new to Hank – and would certainly be useful, given the amount of situations Connor managed to get himself into.

Sarah suddenly resumed her simulated breathing, making a couple of people jump, to which Clara smiled, and continued to explain, “possibly, upon feeling a vulnerable area like this touched, a previously unresponsive android may turn back on their breathing simulation.”

Well, that was reassuring. Sort of. Assumingly, it was meant to be, so.

Clara stood up, nodding in thanks to Sarah, who remained lying on the floor. “As a final exercise, those who wish to practise this technique may come and try it out on Sarah here, who has given her permission and will act as though you are checking an unresponsive android.”

There was a slight interested buzz around the room, and several officers, including Chris, stood up to approach the middle of the circle, where one at a time, they waited for Sarah to become unresponsive, then checked if she was still alive. It took several of them by surprise, judging by the quiet exclamations, and each of them thanked both Sarah and Clara for the lesson when they finished, beginning to file out of the room while chatting to each other.

Connor smiled to himself. The lecture itself had been almost pleasant to sit through, and it was certainly a… relief? At any rate, a nice thing to know that most of the station now knew basic android first aid.

He glanced at Hank, who was still watching the gathered people with interest. Connor cocked his head, thinking.

“Would you like to see what it’s like?” He asked in a genuine voice, and Hank jerked his head around, apparently surprised, but shook his head after hesitating.

“Nah,” he replied, leaning back a little in his chair and watching as Reed stood waiting by the door for Chris with arms crossed and foot tapping impatiently.

The officer finally disbanded from the group of people and headed towards his partner, smile dissipating as Reed gave him a pointed look and headed out of the door with a huff. Chris glanced back slightly nervously and caught Hank’s stare, to which he gave a little wave before leaving after his dickhead friend.

Hank sighed at that and turned back to Connor, who was for some reason still watching him closely. He raised an eyebrow in response.

“I assume you do not want to interrupt the congregation of people in the middle,” Connor explained with slight hesitance, “but would you like to test it on me instead?”

The lieutenant blinked, apparently taken aback.

“It would be more beneficial anyway,” Connor rushed, “since it is more likely you would have to perform a check like that on me if I did happen to… do my ‘stupid self-sacrificing shit’, as you say.”

Hank huffed would could have been a laugh at that, but hesitated at the actual offer. “Son, I think I—”

“You have my permission. And it would be beneficial to both our work and your stress level for you to be aware of how to tell if I am alive when unresponsive.”

“My fuckin’ stress level is always gonna be high with you, kid,” he muttered, shaking his head in a fond way, “but I guess it would be ‘helpful’, as you put it, to know.”

Connor nodded dutifully, and slipped his coin, which had been unmoving in his hand for about the last half hour, into a pocket before offering his hand to Hank. “Let me show you,” he said simply.

“What—”

The android took his hand and gently placed it, palm flat, against his chest, and ceased his synthetic breathing for a moment, waiting.

Hank’s eyes widened slightly in surprise, but he kept his hand there, carefully concentrating on the feel of vibrations from inside the android’s body and, more distantly but certainly there, a rhythmic thumping that was the actual heart. It was… so human. Almost disturbingly so.

Once Connor heard the quietly sharp intake of breath from his partner, he slowly resumed his own synthetic breathing as Hank gently took his hand away and Connor glanced at him with another reassuring smile.

“That was… pretty fuckin’ weird, Connor,” Hank admitted, and sighed before smiling back. “But helpful. Uh, thanks.”

Connor just nodded. “Anytime, Lieuten—Hank.”

Hank shook his head fondly and reached out to ruffle the kid’s hair to regain a sense of normalcy. “C’mon, let’s get back to Sumo,” he said, standing up. Connor followed suit, straightening his jacket and tie that he still wore to work, at least.

Clara glanced up as they headed out and smiled goodbye with a wave, which Connor returned slightly awkwardly and Hank raised a hand in thanks.

They traipsed through the almost empty station and out the doors, the cool air feeling nice after being stuck in a room with many other people for best part of an hour. Getting into the car as usual, Hank glanced at Connor, pausing with his hand on the keys.

“Do me a favour, though,” he started, seriousness in his tone.

Connor looked across. “Yes, Hank?”

“Just… at least try not to deliberately get yourself into such a situation where I have to wonder if you’re actually dead.”

“Well—” Connor cut himself off for once, completely ready to explain that their job wasn’t exactly risk free and in general there were several situations where anything could happen, but at the unusually tense expression on his partner’s face, the android rethought his logical answer.

Instead, he nodded, and simply replied, “I will do what I can.”

Hank stared at him for a second longer, and seemingly satisfied with the answer, turned the ignition keys. The engine started up and the music player turned on, already blasting out Knights Of The Black Death as they pulled away from the police station and towards home.

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, this took me so fucking long, and got kind of way out of hand, but yknow what, it's the longest amount of writing I have done in a long ass time, and it's about one of my favourite topics, and I've spent literally all afternoon/evening writing this, it's been like six hours and I'm tired but I did it and we still don't know what endings are but whatever. Love these trash cop dad and android cop son forever amen.
> 
> Please comment etc.! I write for myself but it is so lovely to know that other people appreciate it too!!
> 
> Also feel free to come yell abt this trash cop family over on my tumblr;  
> strugglingbutstillfighting.tumblr.com


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